Part of Jakarta

Polwan Harley BM — Indonesian women you don’t wanna mess with

Here’s the picture of the Asian the chicks that almost got away. Thanks to a friendly train, however . . . here’s a 30 Jan 2010 shot of a Brigade Motor (BM) unit comprised of female police (polisi wanita or “polwan”). The bikes are supposedly Harleys and — if I’m not incorrect — here you’ll find here the lady biker cops article that describes what’s going on in the picture.

The article (in Indonesian) says the bikes are 1690 cc Harleys and seven of them were recently purchased by the Jakarta administration so the female police could help out with the infamously snarled traffic situation — for 5 billion rupiah.

In any event, for now please check out the super cool and informative photos below originally posted by Donny Apriliananda at www.dapurpacu.com together with an article entitled “Between Big Bikes and Feminism.”

Are we supposed to smile or not? Normally you would not smile upon finding Jakarta’s awesome traffic currents carrying into a net of BM biker cops. BM cops are known for being tougher in general and some are downright vicious. You’re much more likely to encounter a cowboy cop on a big bike than on foot or riding a little bebek (the ubiquitous girly-looking bikes with automatic clutch). But this time it’s different — they’re women and they’re trying to smooth out the kinks so we get a better ride back and forth to work. And anyway, if the Indonesian police actually intend to improve their miserable image, then it does make sense to start over — with an entirely different gender of cops.

The only part I don’t get is why they ride Harleys. No one else does. In fact, the trend here is smaller and smaller scooters; and then you swap out the rear view mirrors with little tiny ones (check with your dentist) to make you skinnier and better able to weave through traffic properly and get where you’re going on time. And the gist of these articles seems to be that it has taken quite a bit of effort for the for the lady coppers — who no doubt already have a lot of bike hours under their gnarly leather belts — to re-learn simple bike tricks astride the massive hogs.